tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-351295402017-12-24T12:20:42.244+00:00Surreptitious Evil<b>All hope abandon hope ye who enter here!</b><br>Irregular meanderings on security and law, with occasional swearing (and politics - with regular swearing).Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.comBlogger717125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-48335837113385912182017-12-04T09:49:00.001+00:002017-12-04T09:49:45.252+00:00This blog is proudly producedfrom a spare bedroom in Central Scotland.
Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-48466745425662204452017-09-29T11:46:00.002+00:002017-09-29T12:00:42.973+00:00Yes, I would expect you to "worry about money most of the time".So, the Beeb has yet another article about some people being relatively poor. And it has two poster children. The second is a recent graduate working for the NHS but that complaint is all mixed in with racism, sexism and other whataboutery.
I want you to have a think about Pippa.
Pippa:
Has or, at least had, mental health problems.
Which caused her to drop out of school - presumably with GCSESurreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-24180485147036880182017-08-25T06:56:00.000+00:002017-08-25T06:56:08.208+00:00Unsympathetic AdvertisingVia Farnsworth M Muldoon on David Thompson's site, I was alerted to this entertaining piece of karma. I explored further to some of the mashups on the Daily Wire. But what finally made it for me was the advert presented at the bottom. Ouch ...
Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-60890497710250612972017-08-11T10:54:00.001+00:002017-08-11T10:54:45.719+00:00It's not real socialism ...According to Craig Murray, who seems to have gone completely off the deep end since I last read any of his stuff.
Apparently, Venezuela, even though they call it 'Bolivarian Socialism' themselves, is apparently 'revolutionary millenarianism'.
As in:
The problem with revolutionary millenarianism is that its failure to achieve utopia is viewed as disaster by its proponents.
Personally, I think Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-23525261551093814992017-03-28T07:35:00.002+00:002017-03-28T07:35:47.755+00:00Can we spot the bait and switch here?Guardian headline, reported on the Today programme:
European diplomats based in the UK say the British government is stepping back from its threat to leave the EU without a trade deal if negotiations break down.In private, say diplomats, UK officials recognise the “havoc” that this would cause, and have come to regret the threat to turn the UK into a deregulated offshore tax haven, implicit in Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-61994451974750942942017-03-19T17:28:00.000+00:002017-03-19T17:29:59.080+00:00Light slowly dawns?Well, it is almost the equinox :)
Something has obviously been added to the water* at the SNP Conference:
He said: “There’s obviously a very sophisticated intelligence network that exists currently as part of the UK and it would make no sense to tear all that down. Once Scotland is an independent country we are going to cooperate extremely closely with our immediate neighbour.
Well, replace "Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-53928718516669045582017-03-08T09:06:00.000+00:002017-03-08T09:06:03.698+00:00I'm shocked, I tell you, schocked!How dare intelligence agencies gather intelligence!
BBC:
Wikileaks has published details of what it says are wide-ranging hacking tools used by the CIA.
The alleged cyber-weapons are said to include malware that targets Windows, Android, iOS, OSX and Linux computers as well as internet routers.
Err, well, yes?
Seriously, what do you expect them to be doing? Spending their time finding faster Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-89947385182076384132017-02-22T16:18:00.000+00:002017-02-22T16:18:45.027+00:00Those income requirements for spousal visas ...This is something I feel quite strongly about, my daughter having married an American and having had to wait to bring him across. The principle, I agree with the Supreme Court, of not requiring HM's Government to import people who will be dependent on benefits (outside of our obligations to refugees and asylum seekers, who ought not to but seem quite often to be economic migrants), is reasonable.Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-17591080614770889912017-02-13T14:11:00.001+00:002017-02-13T14:11:18.145+00:00He hit him with the cluebat!Somehow, I've got on to the "Medium" daily mailing list. Quite a lot of it is just the usual pathetic SJW whining with a strong levening of "This shit is only relevant to Yanks. And, even there, it is probably still wrong."
But this cracked me up:
Though the vaunted Free Market has no incentives to, say, take care of babies with cancer, a well-functioning market can definitely be a great way Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-59867856385370987802017-02-07T07:55:00.000+00:002017-02-07T07:55:42.819+00:00British Values?So Jeremy Corbyn thinks that John Bercow is right to reflect "British values" in signalling that the Trumpocalypse will stop at the gates of the Palace of Westminster.
I wonder if these values are the murderous homophobia and anti-semitism and the legalised misogyny that he loves so much in his friends from Hamas and Hezbollah, or the torture and murder practiced so freely by his friends in the Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-3406142870529473862017-01-26T08:02:00.001+00:002017-01-26T08:02:10.067+00:00BBC goes Daily MailRoman houses found under park in Chichester:
"It is thought the houses, which would have been worth millions today, were owned by people of importance."
A quick skeg at Zoopla suggests that they are probably wrong.Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-4933863969625585482016-12-25T20:07:00.002+00:002016-12-25T22:46:21.084+00:00The stupidest thing I've heard all year ...And it has been an exemplar year for idiots and their utterances:
Elf on the Shelf is easily the most violently dreadful thing to happen in 2016.
FFS. You've had Aleppo, a regular if discontinuous series of Islamist murders, Daesh / ISIS / who cares, Trump, anti-Trump riots and Jessica effing-Valenti, and people are worried about a bloody doll?
Well, okay, not "people". Guardian commentatorsSurreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-87347091510568152972016-06-29T11:12:00.003+00:002016-06-29T11:18:20.553+00:00Another graph for Tim W
Apropos of this discussion, here is a graph of annual incomes for the 25th and 50th percentiles of British (GB) households. These are "before housing costs" and in 2013-14 "prices" (so I'm assuming normalised to 2013-14 Pounds).
Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-54426878111237362082016-03-02T10:44:00.000+00:002016-03-02T12:21:00.399+00:00Some Musings on TaxSo, pace a discussion chez Timmy, a couple of graphs.
Firstly, the distribution of UK after tax income in 2013-14:
Tax Year 2013-14, UK Govt Figures
At Richard's request, the same distribution for tax year 1999-2000:
Tax Year 1999-2000, UK Govt Figures
Then we have the %age change (NB: all positive), for each centile, in after tax income between tax years 1999-00 and 2013-14:
%ageSurreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-10534406514100166232016-02-17T07:48:00.000+00:002016-02-17T07:48:18.111+00:00The BBC - They hate Britain, don't they?From here:
Argentine forces landed on the Falklands on 2 April 1982 to stake a territorial claim, but by 14 June they had been ejected by a British military task force
In non-BBC speak:
Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982 but by 14 June they had been defeated by a British military task force.
Also, I'd note that I technically agree with Fallon that Corbyn is a Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-48406938907366513842015-05-19T19:14:00.000+00:002015-05-19T19:14:52.506+00:00The Guardian - ignorant again.
Is any painting really worth $179m?
Sarah and Tiffany scream at each other, ignoring, across the hardly-crowded bar of Comment is Fatuous, the public. Sarah is, apparently, a "cultural sociologist", while Tiffany has the job that rightly belongs to Brian Sewell* at the Torygraph.
They add:
Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) set a new world record last week for the most Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-30285106010458155612015-04-05T14:01:00.002+00:002015-04-05T14:01:34.983+00:00Christians should resist persecution without violenceDear ++Cantur,
Whilst I understand the theological derivation, even certainty, behind your message, can I politely suggest that reality will generally say "Sod that for a game of victims"?
Yours,
Surreptitious Evil.
(A clerk under minor holy orders.)Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-52587473846441848662015-02-09T10:50:00.001+00:002015-02-09T10:50:13.299+00:00Now, I got this completely wrong ...BBC headline:
"Lawyers bite over 'Left Shark' model"
So, there's me thinking some lawyers complaining about some other lawyers new form of sales strategy which describes the participants as sharks.
Nothing so amusing. Instead, it's a rather boring IPR thing about Katy Perry's Superbowl show.Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-60000243091107947592015-02-02T09:22:00.001+00:002015-02-02T09:22:42.324+00:00Politicians. Why are they so ignorant?Okay, so there was some politician* ranting on the Today programme about how utopia would arrive when she became Lord Protector (I think.) Anyway, the usual spend, spend, spend (costings to be explained in our manifesto in March) but this wasn't, definitely, not, a manifesto for the 2015 General Election. No way.
Anyway ...
One of her key points was "to raise the Living Wage to £10 per hour". Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-70953660428766779532014-12-15T09:35:00.001+00:002014-12-15T09:35:43.498+00:00That evil Benefits CapDriving to the train station this morning, I listened to the denunciation of the Benefits Cap on the Today programme. Typical for the metro-socialist tendency of al-Beeb.
Key amongst the points made was that, against a climate of rising Housing Benefit, the saving from the Benefits Cap was neglible.
This, of course, missed the point. The Benefits Cap was not, fundamentally, introduced to Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-17078551951750565112014-12-09T20:13:00.002+00:002014-12-09T20:13:38.628+00:00The "rule of law" should be suspended for people we dislike Here:
Responding to the ruling NSPCC Wales head of service Des Mannion said: "It is extremely frightening that a child rapist described as 'very dangerous' and unrepentant has been released back in to the community due to what seems like a legal technicality surrounding the timing of the offence."
This is increasingly common, not least amongst the Richard Murphy tendency.
Discuss.
As a Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-82975619512132161282014-10-04T07:28:00.001+00:002014-10-04T07:28:42.011+00:00Is this a made up name?From here, talking about organised, paid, pro-Putin trolling:
"Kristina Potupchik is probably kicking herself right now," he adds, referring to the blogger, now seemingly retired, who for years led trolling efforts by the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi. "In her day, of course, there wasn't nearly the budget for Internet pollution as they have now."
Whatever. But Kristina "Pop Up Chick"? Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-33604980939528600812014-09-04T14:25:00.003+00:002014-09-04T14:30:47.024+00:00I'm puzzled.This.
In Reprieve's eyes, BT was therefore partly responsible for deaths dealt from Djibouti drones, and should be answerable for it.
So I had a look at the OECD document that Reprieve are complaining BT are in breach of. One of the first things I see is
They provide non-binding principles and standards for responsible business conduct in a global context consistent with applicable laws and Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-91400641794836306082014-08-26T18:01:00.000+00:002014-08-26T18:01:35.856+00:00#GenocideinGaza(Ed notes: I drafted this on the train in to work this morning and had pretty much a day of end-to-end meeting hell. Although I now know that a [coughs] "long-term" ceasefire has now been agreed, I don't think it changes the sentiment of what I had written.)
The population of Gaza is some 1.8 million people, crammed in to an area of 139
square miles. Not quite Macau, or even Hong Kong (which I Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35129540.post-84741756878308359312014-07-22T07:19:00.001+00:002014-07-22T07:19:11.182+00:00Yes, the USA is different ...We know the Yanks do things in different ways. From playing the World Series*, to which the world is not invited, to ignoring almost everything they do to alleviate poverty in calculating their poverty statistics ... The USA is different.
This time, it is the BBC banging on about the environment:
Beef cattle need 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water than pork, poultry, eggs or Surreptitious Evilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.com0